New Clause 8 - Abolition of School Organisation Committee
Education Bill [Lords]
4:15 pm
Mr Derek Twigg (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Schools), Department for Education and Skills; Halton, Labour)
As the hon. Lady said, and we agree, the new clause would effectively abolish the decision makers for changes to schools in England—the local school organisation committees and schools adjudicators. It would remove the duty on local authorities to establish school organisation committees and the Secretary of State’s power to appoint school adjudicators.
In passing, I note that adjudicators decide cases of contentious admissions arrangements that are referred to them, as well as deciding school organisation issues. The new clause would, therefore, disadvantage parties with an interest in admissions in the area, including parents. In particular, it would no longer be possible to refer to the adjudicator objections to school admission arrangements as provided for in section 90 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.
As hon. Members know, before the decision-making arrangements were introduced by the 1998 Act, decisions on statutory proposals were commonly taken by Ministers in the Department for Education and Skills. We took the view that such decisions should be made at local level by the key stakeholders who understand local issues and are able to take a balanced view of the competing arguments. That would also secure local ownership of the important decisions that affect the local community. That local knowledge and the ability to balance competing arguments would be important when it came to deciding between a number of different proposals.
The constitution of the school organisation committee was carefully designed to give equal representation to all the local stakeholders—the local authority, which has a statutory duty to ensure that there are sufficient school places, schools themselves, through members of their governing bodies, the local Church of England and Roman Catholic dioceses and the Learning and Skills Council. We think that the system works well and is a sensible middle way between a complete free-for-all and centralised decision making in Whitehall.
We owe it to our children to do our best to ensure that the school system delivers equity and quality for all. The system that has been devised offers a means of achieving that. There is no evidence of a clamour for change, although we are not complacent and will continue to monitor arrangements, taking account of the extent to which they deliver good outcomes for local communities. I hope that hon. Members will agree that some such arrangements are necessary and that it is simply not practical for schools to be set up without proper consideration of their viability and the educational and social needs of an area.